From strategy to store
in twelve months:
Morrisons launches the
Nutmeg clothing range
In May 2013, Morrisons announced
that the launch of its Nutmeg
childrens brand had been a great
success, beating expectations for the
first full month of trading.
Yet eighteen months earlier,
Morrisons had never been involved
in the clothing sector, when they
decided to appoint Tim Bettley
as their first Director of Clothing
and enter the market under the
Nutmeg brand.
This was strategically important,
as insight had shown that it was
high on the list of categories
that customers wanted to see
in Morrisons stores. But it was a
significant challenge: designing a
range is one thing, but the entire
process to get it into stores is
something altogether different.
They decided to work with us to
make it happen.
Project One Case Study
Morrisons
1.
To succeed, we needed to recruit a top team to lead the
key areas of Design, Buying, Supply and Merchandising.
THe CHALLENGE
Turning a start-up clothing brand into a
significant revenue stream for one of the
UK’s leading supermarkets.
Launching a completely new
category with new branding into
a live supermarket environment
is challenging enough, but
establishing a new company within
a company and all of the processes
to get that new brand into stores is
real enterprise-wide change.
Our role was to support Tim in
leading the launch from start
to finish. From range design to
clothing supplier selection. From
buying to distribution, warehousing
and the IT systems needed to
support the new category. And
everything from store fit out and
front line staff training, through to
brand and marketing. Morrisons
knew that this was one of the most
demanding change programmes
undertaken in UK retail in recent
years.
Time was tight. We had less than
twelve months from the day that
we started at Morrisons through
to launch in over 100 stores across
the UK. To succeed, we needed to
recruit a top team to lead the key
areas of Design, Buying, Supply
and Merchandising.
A UNIFIED UNDERSTANDING
OF SPECIFIC BUSINESS
TERMS IS ESSENTIAL
We had to establish a new
strategic location for Morrisons
in Leicestershire to leverage the
market skills that predominantly
reside in that area by October
2012. Once that team was up to
speed, the aim was to source
the range, get it into stores and
garner positive press and customer
feedback on the range once it was
launched in March 2013.
Project One Case Study
Morrisons
2.
“I’m pleased to report that in May,
Nutmeg achieved over a million pounds
worth of sales a week for the
first two weeks of the month”
Karl Fisher, Project One
THE APPROACH
There are times when a change
programme runs so deep or
is so critical to a business that
there is a need for specialist
expertise to ensure its success.
Project One brought in one of our
most experienced consultants,
Karl Fisher, supported by retail
specialists within our team
and a Delivery Director who
really understood the culture at
Morrisons and could support the
delivery of the change.
They worked across the business at
Morrisons to ensure that everyone
who needed to understood the
strategy, why it was happening
and the implications of the change,
which stretched right across the
business. To minimise disruption
to the existing core business,
Morrisons decided to develop as a
‘stand-alone’ business.
The structure of the new business
was established and the Nutmeg
leadership recruited a large team
of people including designers,
merchandisers, buyers, clothing
technicians, operations, marketing
and finance. We needed to find
and fit out premises from which
to work and this was our first
learning: it was difficult to attract
the right skill set to relocate to
Bradford in the short term, so we
established a new location for
Nutmeg near Leicester.
We then focused on the clothes
themselves. The team had to
design the Spring/Summer
2013 range for launch, source
manufacturing and ensure that
it was shipped in plenty of time.
To minimise risk, they worked
primarily with suppliers that they
knew in Asia and Turkey. To get
the range into stores, we also
needed to lead the location, fit out
and staffing of a new Distribution
Centre to take the clothing prior to
distribution to stores.
IT was a key issue. Because
Morrisons hadn’t traded clothing
on a large scale in the past,
new software was required for
Merchandise Management System
and a Warehouse Management
System on which to manage all
of the activity and feed through
into Morrisons finance systems,
creating interfaces where
necessary.
With the product and back office
in place, attention shifted to the
most important part: the customer
experience. After agreeing which
stores would be part of the launch,
the next stage was to fit out over
one hundred stores, train staff
and agree signage for the point of
sale. The marketing and PR for the
launch was agreed and by March
2013 we were ready to go. Just as
we had promised.
Project One Case Study
Morrisons
3.
OUTCOME
This mammoth change was delivered on
time and under budget and initial results
have exceeded expectations.
Careful planning, outstanding
execution and great teamwork
between Morrisons and Project
One enabled us to achieve the
change without impacting on
current store operations. This
was tough, as over eleven million
customers visit Morrisons’ stores
every week. The range has been
so successful that the company is
now expanding distribution to its
Kiddicare stores.
OUR C
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DOES REAL CHAN OW
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DIFFE KE A REAL
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pr
Weekly sales for the Nutmeg
range have consistently surpassed
forecasts. Most importantly,
customers love the new range and
their positive reaction has resulted
in increased basket spend across
Morrisons.
je
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Project One Case Study
Morrisons
4.